Friday, January 16, 2009

ReVamped Gets PW review

/happy dance

That's not the review, just my reaction to it.

In fact, please pardon me while I bury the lead.

Let me take you back to early 2008 when a soon-to-be-published author, yours truly, was frantic for reviews. I still am. I don't know if that ever goes away, but we're not talking about me now, we're talking about me then, the author who hadn't figured out how Google alerts worked, the author who is waiting for someone, anyone, to say something (again... ANYTHING) about his book.

Picture him, if you can. He wakes up each morning and does a Google search for variations of his own name, the title of his book, and the word "review." Then, in case the search hasn't picked them up, he goes to various review sites that he hopes will review his book and searches and pours and frets. He does the same thing at lunch and when he returns home from works and in the middle of the night...

Lets leave him there fretting. He looks amusing hunched over his laptop at Krystal fighting with their free wireless network, brow furrowed, as he squints through the glare. He's nowhere near as fun to watch once the Library Journal review comes out. He's still obsessive, but the frantic nature of his OCD has lessened.

One of those places I checked every week (if not every day) was Publishers Weekly. So imagine my surprise when this time around, I get this... before I'd even thought to look for it:

"ReVamped J.F. Lewis. Pocket, $15 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4391-0228-2

Vampire fans who like their blood and gore leavened with humor should enjoy the campy sequel to 2008's Staked. Eric Courtney, strip club owner and operator in Void City, is coming to terms with existence as a ghost vampire after dying in an explosion that totaled his place of business. His former fiancée, Marilyn, tells Eric that his best friend betrayed him, but the demon J'iliol'lth collects her soul before she can explain further. Worse yet, Eric's beloved Mustang somehow gets turned into a vampire. Eric accepts a commission from J'iliol'lth to find the Stone of Aeternem, which enables its holder to raise the dead, in exchange for immortality and the return of Marilyn's soul. The jokes are far from subtle, but Lewis's creativity elevates this above similar outings. (Mar.)"

I'm not sure what the pull quote would be, but I'm tickled pink to have the book favorably reviewed. :)